Alice Jones (I)

Interview: Adam Riches strikes fear into his audience

Adam Riches won the Edinburgh Comedy Award for his crowd-baiting show. As it comes to London, he explains how he selects his victims.

Katherine Parkinson interview

Parkinson stars in a Dickens spoof over Christmas, then takes on Ayckbourn.

Black Mirror had plenty to say about technology as force for evil. The first of three satirical dramas by Charlie Brooker, National Anthem played out like a psychotic episode of Spooks. There was the same clipped urgency as officials strode down corridors, the same fight against a fundamentalist deadline and the same ripple effect as ordinary citizens were caught up in the crisis. It was only the nature of the threat - a kidnapped princess and a YouTube ransom note that demanded that the Prime Minister commit an obscene act with a pig live on TV - which hinted that we were in the hands of a rather more twisted storyteller.

Familiar territory to Newswipe fans, this was a what-if scenario spiralled to its darkest, most paranoid conclusion. Brooker has named The Twilight Zone as an influence but you might throw in Brass Eye and The Thick of It, too. Rory Kinnear and Lindsay Duncan were brilliant as the PM and his Home Secretary, delivering absurd lines with poker faces. It was, perhaps, a little over-egged, waging war on everything from the press and politics, to Twitter, the Turner Prize and the Royal Wedding but you couldn't fault its bilious verve.

Tim Minchin interview

He's played arenas and opera houses. Now Tim Minchin is taking over the West End with his musical Matilda. And he's not stopping there, he tells Alice Jones.

Miriam Elia: How art helped heal my broken heart

An empty room with the lights going on and off, athletes running through a hallway or a piece of blu-tack stuck to a wall: as Martin Creed knows, anything can become art, given a little conceptual tweaking. What about a relationship, though? Or the end of one? Three years ago, Creed met a young artist/comedian called Miriam Elia. Now Elia, 29, has taken the lead from her ex-boyfriend and has fashioned their brief encounter into an artwork, entitled I Fell In Love With a Conceptual Artist, and It Was Totally Meaningless!!!

Ricky Gervais' bad day at the office

For a man who admits he is 'one false move away from Jim Davidson', his latest schtick is either career suicide - or PR genius.

Bland comedy on the Beeb? Don't make me laugh

Sauciness. That's a word you don't hear enough any more.

James Corden: The history boy who grew up

James Corden has come a long way since the play that made his name. Now back at the National Theatre, the Gavin & Stacey star talks fame, flops and fatherhood with Alice Jones.

Not before time, the creator of Smack the Pony and Green Wing, Victoria Pile, is returning with a new comedy. Campus, set in the fictional Kirke University, will screen on Channel 4 from 5 April. The semi-improvised sitcom piloted on the channel's Comedy Showcase in 2009 when it attracted good reviews and a smattering of criticism for describing Stephen Hawking as a "famously disabled spastic" in the first minute. I've now seen the first two episodes and can confirm that that joke, from David Brent-esque vice chancellor Jonty de Wolfe (Andy Nyman), has made the cut, but there is still much to appreciate in Campus. Like Green Wing, the hour-long episodes have a surreal, stop-start momentum, a woozy soundtrack from Jonathan Whitehead and a familiar cast of characters: lecherous lecturer Matt Beer and bespectacled spod Imogen Moffatt are already set to be the show's Guy and Caroline. Watch out, too, for the administrative office, staffed by rising stars Sara Pascoe and Will Adamsdale.

Blonde ambition: The unstoppable Sheridan Smith

Sheridan Smith triumphed in the stage version of Legally Blonde. Now she's starring in a Rattigan revival, likely to play Bridget Jones on stage - and favourite for an Olivier Award this weekend.